24 days
by Cara Lea
Summary: MewCinnamon, Merry Christmas!


MewCinnamon sat on the park bench, looking around the large beach-park. Her blond hair hung like lichen over her features, keeping her face hidden from the world while she could see them. People passed without even a second glance. In _this_ park, she was nothing, but back at _home_...

_No,_ she thought. _Don't go that way. Home is a long way and a long time behind you. You gotta put your past behind you._

A young woman struggling with a baby in her arms passed, almost fighting with the poor thing. MewCinnamon thought that perhaps the woman should try giving the baby what it needs, not what the woman herself wanted it to need. Then again, what did she care if the new-born child's mother wasn't good.

_It is important that the future generation is a good generation, also, a poor mother makes a poor baby, and the child doesn't deserve that._ Who was she kidding, that child needed help.

A man passed, running with an i-pod attachment to his arm. Behind him zipped a group of teenage high school girls, all goggling at him. MewCinnamon snorted. Did these girls even _know_ the man?

Along the sand across from her, dancers, weight-lifters, models, singers, guitar players, hippies...all of them were showing off their specific style. A group of girl-scouts crossed her pas, tied to one another with a long rope. All of these people and thousands more were passing by, not giving her even a spare thought.

Venice Beach, Los Angeles California. This was her stop, her vacation spot. She had never dreamed of coming this far, but it was only a stop on the way. Sometime soon, her family would come and get her. Right now, they were on the beach. She wondered why all these people were out when a storm was on the way. She was waiting on her family, and certainly not the only one, but the people were crazy, as thunder was playing in the distance. The sun was definitely not shining today.

With no one paying special attention to her, it surprised MewCinnamon when someone _did_ give her a second glance.

He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen, and he had blond hair of his own. He was wearing a long sleeve shirt even though it was humid and hot out. The storm in the distance was throwing winds toward MewCinnamon, cooling her down, but the man didn't seem to notice it. His eyes were on her. She trembled at the look there. He didn't appear to want to hurt her, just watching her as she waited, but there was _always_ something creepy in someone who watches you in LA.

She decided to ignore him. People here were like teeth. If you ignored them long enough, they would leave. This didn't happen. The boy watched her until the thunder was so close, the ground rumbled underfoot. Everytime MewCinnamon looked over there, it seemed as though he had not blinked, or moved, or even twitched. He was just watching her. She was more than just creeped out by it. This was down right stalkerish. Maybe this more than beautiful man was a stalker! Chills ran up and down MewCinnamon's spine like it was a track meet. It was the thought that a stalker could possibly be following a rather large city with more an a thousand people on this street alone.

She stood and looked around. Where was everybody? It seemed as though this street was being deserted. That meant that her family, as well, had left her! It also meant that she and this stranger were...this was bad.

MewCinnamon walked toward the beach; to her disapproval, the stalker, if he was one, did too. As she stepped onto the sand, she saw for the first time what drove everyone away. About fifty yards away, a solid wall of water was pushing onto land like a tsunami. MewCinnamon was solid. She couldn't walk away from this, and probably wouldn't walk away at all.

As the storm surge approached where she was standing, about fifty feet from her, her legs turned to jelly and she began to collapse. A solid wall it her.

She was on the ground as water surged around her, wetting her, but she had not been hit by water. She was lifted off the ground and was walking a bumpy ride away. Was this what it felt like to die?

The storm was suddenly gone. MewCinnamon barely opened her eyes and saw the man she had been afraid of, so wet, and carrying her away.

When MewCinnamon awoke, she was in a new place. It was dyer, (but getting wetter) and definitely a safer place than where they had been. She sat up and noticed that she wasn't alone. The beautiful man was with her. He was sitting a distance away. Next to her, a fire roared. Why was this stranger sitting _away_ from the fire. A better question: what was going on?!

"You're awake." Was all that he said. Nothing more, nothing less.

MewCinnamon, not liking the silence as much as she hated the staring that was now not occurring, asked, "Where are we?"

"High School."

"Why are we here?"

"Because." He paused. "Would you rather be out in that storm?"

"No!" she shouted right away. She shook herself. What had happened? "Who are you?" she asked hesitantly. She didn't want to upset him again.

"Who are you?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"After you?"

He shrugged. "I've no reason to tell you unless I know more about you."

"It's just a name."

"Tell me."

"I asked first." He seemed to be evading the question.

He sighed. "My name is Jasper." MewCinnamon gasped. She knew that name from somewhere, if only she could place it...

He turned his golden eyes to look at her. The flames lit up his face, making him look particularly demonic. "Now, are you gonna answer my question?"

"Oh," she started, remembering that he had asked for hers name. "MewCinnamon." He snorted, but looked away. Now, she had more questions to ask. One of them being, "Why were you staring?"

He smiled and looked at her. "You were the only one left, I could see it, why didn't you?"

She shrugged for an answer, then asked, "What happened?" His smile, which had looked more than demonic, dropped. He looked away. MewCinnamon knew that attitude. He was shutting down, not gonna tell her what had happened. This upset her. How could her do this to her?! She deserved answers. She sighed. If Jasper wasn't going to answer that question, she had plenty of more for him to answer.

"Where's my family?"

"Safe."

"What was that?"

"Hurricane." The unanswered question filled her again. If that was a hurricane, why wasn't she dead? Maybe she could crack him open. Maybe...

"Why didn't you leave with the others?"

"Why didn't you?" She moaned. Looks like he knew everything, and she knew nothing, and it was going to stay that way. She rolled over. Maybe, she could annoy him into dumping her somewhere, or answering her questions. If there was one thing no one wanted to here, it was this. "I'm hungry."

Jasper sighed, and looked at her with eyes that seemed to have darkened in the past few minutes. "So am I." His words scent chills running through MewCinnamon once more a marathon, though she didn't know why; what could make _this_ blond beauty so dangerous.

"What are you thinking?" she asked, hoping to pry out his thoughts. To her immense surprise, he smiled at her.

"The exact thing you are." His answer left her in more questions, and obviously her not understanding ruined his mood. His smile turned into a frown and he turned away from her again.

"Jasper," she whispered. He shook his head and sighed, looking at her again. Her heart nearly stopped. What was wrong with her? "What am I thinking?"

He shook his head and stared at her as though it were obvious and she should know that he couldn't possibly know. This upset her even more; what did he mean?!

Jasper opened his mouth. "Anything more you want to know?" When MewCinnamon didn't answer, he said, "That's what I thought." He looked away again. In truth, there was more MewCinnamon wanted to know, but she was too stunned to answer. Could he read her mind, or her face? Neither seemed likely, as she was too numb to really _feel_ anything but bleak emotions, and they weren't strong. It was like a ghost eating food. You could _almost_ taste it.

The next few days went on like that. Jasper wouldn't answer any of her questions and she had too many to ask. It seemed that she was getting feeling back, coming back to life, and it was starting to turn into worse feelings.

To her great relief, the horrible emotions that struck her(mostly anger, embarrassment, fear, tiredness, fear, hunger, fear, loneliness, fear, and mostly fear.) faded away into the numbness that was boredom. The most exciting part of her day was waking up really early to see Jasper cooking a dead mouse in the fire for her to eat. Yummy. That, and when the raging storm outside stopped. That was on their fifth day locked like this together.

He doubted that the storm itself was over, more that they reached the eye. MewCinnamon wasn't going to argue with that. If there was one thing that she had learned in the past five days was that he was smart, and not just book smart. It seemed that Jasper had had experience in his life than any _normal_ human ever could. Though, she still didn't know if Jasper qualified as human.

They walked outside together. He was just in front of her, so that she would see the back of his head as they walked. He really was beautiful, the most beautiful man she had ever seen. His blond hair was just as beautiful as the rest of him. He stopped and turned to look at her, confusion showing on his face. MewCinnamon realized she wasn't walking anymore.

"It's okay," he reassured her in his amazing voice. She nodded but didn't move. Pain and embarrassment must have shown on her face, for he smiled at her a perfect smile and said, "Yeah, I know." He held up his hand. "Come on." MewCinnamon started breathing faster, her emotions swirling. This was new, but was it bad? Something, the change in his face, maybe, said no. She took his cold hand in hers.

They walked to the edge of a walkway and looked around. The city was in ruins, and no one else was walking around. MewCinnamon shuddered. Not just was his extremely cold hand making her shiver, but the fact that they were utterly and helplessly alone. No one else was there, no one would save them.

"Wow," she breathed. In the distance, another solid wall of water was rising out of the ground. Wind and rain had created the typhoon, and a very big tropical cyclone at that. She didn't know what was prettier, the sun setting behind a mountain of land, or a mountain of sea, because certainly watching it was beautiful. As the last rays of day were leaving, Jasper turned to her and said,

"We should go inside, we're going to get caught in the storm again." Humiliation flowed through MewCinnamon, but Jasper laughed. "Don't worry, I'll protect you." MewCinnamon allowed herself to be dragged away to the inside the high school walls, a thing that she normally wouldn't have allowed to be done.

Jasper set up another fire, and muttered to it and her, "My family'll be looking for me."

Curiosity infected MewCinnamon. She simply _had_ to know. "Who all is in your family?"

He looked up at her, his face guarded. She knew that she had asked a wrong question, but he answered her. "My dad, Carlisle, my mom, Esme. My sisters Bella Nessie and Rosalie; my brothers Emmett, Edward." MewCinnamon smiled. He had a big family.

"Wow," she breathed for a second time that day. "That's one big family." he shook his head.

"Used to be bigger. It'll be bigger in the future. Nessie's boyfriend Jake wants to join."

Once more flipped by curiosity, MewCinnamon asked, "Who used to be in it, making it bigger?"

His teeth bared. "Alice, she was my...girlfriend." Judging by his tone, the conversation was going to end.

MewCinnamon wanted to keep talking, but poor Jasper looked worn, and she needed sleep.

"Mew," he whispered. His tone was off, suggestive, but when MewCinnamon looked at him, he was guarded again. He sighed, well, more likely moaned. "Let God give you good dreams." MewCinnamon nodded, curled up into a ball for warmth, and began to sleep, Jasper's eyes following her there.

MewCinnamon awoke to another day of silence, this time both Jasper and the storm. The only thing he said was that the silence of the eye would last for another three days. MewCinnamon took that information with grace and began to search the school, or what was left of it, for other people. Nothing. No one. This scared her. She was once more the only human left. Except Jasper. He was her safety, her companion, her guardian these days. Whenever she felt alone, whenever she felt bad about something, he was there, and he was calming. She was always, _always_ calm when near him. This made her subconsciously stick closely to him, making herself calm.

The next day was better. He was talking again, thankfully. They were brave enough to search the neighboring areas together. MewCinnamon could tell that the wall of storm was closing in on them, but it didn't bother her, as long as the school gym they were hiding in didn't fall to pieces.

He even cracked a joke, as weird as it was. MewCinnamon hadn't thought it possible, but the mean, trickster he was. Still, they found no one.

The third day passed in the same energy, if not more, than the second. MewCinnamon was noticing a pattern. He was getting lighter on her, talking more, though not telling her anything. It was weird.

That night, he had found blankets, and real food for her, and wrapped her up, putting his arms around her for the briefest of seconds. Her heart nearly stopped at the cold arms wrapping around her. He was putting the blanket around her and then was gone, leaving her to fall asleep in warmth. She fell asleep in time to the pounding rain as the second storm hit.

Five days later, and the storm ended completely. Thank goodness. It wasn't but for another ten days that they were found. Even though the two of them were talking, and smiling, and having fun, MewCinnamon still knew nothing about him. He seemed to be a stranger, but a safe haven. Finally, the sound of helicopters brought them outside. The life-line took them away immediately, considering their state. They were still together, though, half an hour later, when both their families came bustling in.

Jasper's family was just a beautiful as him, and MewCinnamon was thanked by them all. She thanked them, too.

Her parents wrapped a towel around her and began to walk away, she looked back. He was watching her go. Suddenly, being with her family, MewCinnamon remembered where she had heard the family's names before.

"Jasper," she whispered back to him, as though he could still hear her. She wanted to tell him. "Jasper!" Though it was what she wanted, she could not get her voice above a hoarse whisper. And as she was dragged away, she watched her savior, her friend, her brother, her family...her vampire...disappear around the corner.


End file.
